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VetLegion
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I think children are more likely to survive the jump than grown men, due to their smaller mass.
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VetLegion
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This seems to be the worst stampede in the century so far:
quote:
Here is a chronology of the worst stampedes in the 21st century:
March 31, 2001 - At least 36 pilgrims are killed in a stampede at a Muslim shrine in the central Pakistani province of Punjab.
April 11 - At least 43 people are crushed to death when soccer fans stampeded as they tried to force their way into a South African stadium.
May 9 - 126 people are killed in a stampede at a soccer stadium in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
Dec. 1, 2002 - At least 36 people are killed in northern Bangladesh trying to get to clothes and money given away by a rich businessman for a Muslim festival
Feb. 17, 2003 - At least 21 people are killed in a stampede at an illegal U.S. nightclub in Chicago when they try to escape pepper spray and are crushed behind blocked doors.
Aug. 27, - Stampeding pilgrims trample at least 32 people to death, many of them elderly women, at a religious gathering in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
Feb. 1, 2004 - A stampede kills 251 Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia during the ritual stoning of the devil at the annual Haj pilgrimage.
Feb 5 - A stampede at a Lunar New Year lantern display in China's capital Beijing kills 37.
April 12 - At least 21 women are killed in a stampede in the northern Indian town of Lucknow when supporters of a local politician began giving out free sarees to celebrate his birthday.
Jan. 25, 2005 - At least 257 Hindu pilgrims, including several women and children, are killed in a stampede near a remote temple in India's Maharashtra state.
Aug. 31 - At least 640 people are killed in Iraq when a crowd of Shi'ites stampede off a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad. |
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Eli
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Israel
Jul 2000
time: 07:36
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841 already.
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VetLegion
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Let's start with STRAIGHT DOPE:
quote:
Scientists have long been fascinated by what happens to people who fall from great heights without a parachute. Unsurprisingly, most of them get killed; perhaps surprisingly, a few don't. A prime example of the latter was a 17-year-old male who in 1979 leaped off the Golden Gate Bridge from a height of 250 feet. According to one report, "he recount[ed] a slowing of time initially, and mid-fall, when fully realizing the oncoming impact, strove to adjust his attitude to the vertical feet-first position. An almost perfect entry was achieved. Although dazed, he swam to shore" and checked into a hospital, where his worst injury turned out to be several cracked vertebrae.
Walking away from something like that is rare. The Golden Gate Bridge is said to be the most popular suicide location in the world--at least 1,200 people had jumped as of 2003, of whom fewer than 20 survived. A more typical outcome was that of a stuntman calling himself Kid Courage, who jumped off the bridge in 1980 trying to set a free-fall record. He landed flat on his back and was dead when pulled from the water with massive internal injuries.
The key to survival appears to be vertical entry. Your little brain is right, Paul--there's a difference between landing on water and landing on concrete, namely you can't dive into concrete. The 17-year-old male survivor said he may have touched bottom, perhaps 20 to 25 feet down--plenty of room to disperse the force of impact. In contrast, Kid Courage's body never sank beneath the surface, meaning he'd gone from 75 mph (a Golden Gate leaper's peak speed) to zero in maybe six inches.
Beyond a certain point even Olympic form won't save you. One expert claims the upper limit for surviving water entry is around 80 mph. Presumably it's less if you're hitting something solid. Still, the literature teems with spectacular exceptions:
In a 1942 paper, physiologist Hugh De Haven told of eight people who survived falls of 50 to 150 feet on dry land, many with only minor injuries. The common denominator: something to break the fall or soften the impact, such as loose dirt, the hood of a car, or, in one astonishing but verified case, an iron bar, metal screens, a skylight, and a metal-lath ceiling.
In 1963, U.S. Marine pilot Cliff Judkins's chute didn't open after he bailed out of his crippled fighter. He fell 15,000 feet into the Pacific, suffered numerous broken bones and a collapsed lung, but lived.
U.S. Army air force sergeant Alan Magee fell 20,000 feet from an exploding B-17 in 1943 and crashed through the skylight of a French train station. (A lesson emerges: Aim for the skylight.) Though his arm was shattered, he lived too.
When his bomber was shot down in 1942, Soviet lieutenant I.M. Chisov fell 22,000 feet into a snowy ravine. He was badly injured but recovered.
Luckiest of all was RAF flight sergeant Nicholas Alkemade, who leaped from his burning bomber in 1944 without a parachute at 18,000 feet. After a 90-second plunge, he crashed through tree branches in a pine forest and landed in 18 inches of snow. His only injuries: scratches, bruises, burns, and, in some accounts, a twisted knee.
--CECIL ADAMS |
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050311.html
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31-08-2005 19:29
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